Poor game, good refereeing

Refferee and Assistants

The encounter was handled by a young referee (b. 1980) assisted by two veteran assistant referees - Stancin (b. 1968), Kogej (b. 1967). Mr. Jug, who had been an additional assistant referee to Mr. Skomina in Euro 2012, had a very good game. He started cautiously, trying to put his stamp on the match, thus whistling for fouls instead of giving advantage. After the first handful of minutes he calmed down, and except on a rare occasion, used the advantage rule to perfection. There were a few cases where questions were raised whether he should have called a foul when he didn't, but these were insignificant when one comes to judge the performance as a whole. The ref. was also reasonable, turning down both sides claims for penalty-kicks in their favour. Mr. Stancin who had had many more demanding games as a regular ar in Skomina's team until he was dropped from it on the eve of Euro 2012, was very active and helpful, especially when he detected an Israeli pushing an Azeri in the latter's penalty-area while Mr. Jug was a bit far from the scene and the score-line was yet 0-0. On the other hand, this ar missed an Azeri offside position when the score-line was in favour of Israel. Fortunately for Israel and for Mr. Stancin, the player's header missed the target. Mr. Kogej had a calmer and more low-key performance. It was on his side of the pitch, where both teams in turn claimed for a penalty-kick, and as mentioned above, to no avail.